Analyzing the Elderly Users’ Adoption of Smart-Home Services

Abstract

A rapid increase in the percentage of elderly people over the past few years has been a cause of serious concern among the research fraternity worldwide. Active research is being carried out to leverage the benefits of information and communication technologies that enable them to live independently and promote a sense of overall well-being. Smart-homes are often employed to assist this group of people. However, there is a serious lack of relevant exploratory research that tries to measure and explain the intention of these people toward using such a service. In this paper, we propose and validate a new comprehensive research model called the elderly smart home technology acceptance model by extending the original technology acceptance model that can explain the elderly intention to use the smart-homes. An online questionnaire survey is conducted for this purpose, the results of which are analyzed using the Partial least squares Structural Equation Modeling approach on data collected from 254 subjects. Subjective norm, compatibility, automation, self-capability, and satisfaction are positively related to the elderly intention in using smart-homes, whereas there is a negative association between affordability, security/privacy, and usage intention. Two other factors, namely universal connectivity and enjoyment, have no effect on the behavioral intention. The present study is a first empirical attempt that tries to explore the adoption of smart-homes among the elderly, as all other previous research has focused only on the technical aspects and implementation issues rather than the actual usage intention.